The Winnipeg Jets played one of their most entertaining games of the season on Tuesday night and of course this is not news. There's no point in revisiting that game and the ups and downs of it as well as the result. Connor Hellebuyck has said it's in the past and he's moved on and given his play that night it's the best move for everyone.
With all that being said Bell MTS Place was as raucous and fun as it's been all year. The crowd was excited and engaged and hopefully it's a preview of what will be happening in the playoffs.
Tonight the Red Wings come in and the Jets look to get back on the winning track. They got some help from the out of town scoreboard last night as the Coyotes took down the surging Wild and the Lightning kept Dallas to one point. The Preds rolled over the Oilers as expected and pushed their lead on the Jets to six points.
A win tonight would be nice and if the Jets can keep the offence rolling like it did Tuesday that should not be a problem but it requires an adherence to defence and more particularly awareness in the defensive zone.
Joe Morrow played in his first game for the Jets on Tuesday after Enstrom was hurt in practice on Monday and is expected to play tonight. Head coach Paul Maurice had him paired with Ben Chiarot and this seemed to be the biggest challenge of the night. It's tough to learn a new team's systems and adjust to them but when you are playing a team like the Preds it's even harder and they made that pair work. Morrow is strictly insurance but he is also going to be relied upon in the short term to help Chiarot be a capable third pairing.
The two were torched on the shot attempts against and to complicate matters Myers and Kulikov were not holding their own much better on the second pairing. If anyone questions the value of Enstrom and Trouba it should be very apparent right now. Again this defence is going to be a work in progress but Maurice would do well to make sure that he gets his match-ups correct when he has that control.
While the result did not flatter the Jets from a predictive model they did everything well except stop some shots at important times. If you like looking at Expected Goals as a predictor the Jets led that over the Preds for most of the game. Teams will win more games with that measurement in their favour and that's what the Jets have to focus on.
Is there anything else that needs to be said about Paul Stastny's debut? Probably not and that's what makes him such a valuable commodity for the Jets, he basically fit in like an old glove. The best part about Stastny is he's not required to drive the play forward depending on the line mates he has, rather he's there to solidify what they are doing already. He's a dramatic skill boost and that should only improve the Jets over time as the team gets players back and learns how to integrate their new team mate.
The Red Wings are not a high-scoring team and in fourteen games this past February they have only eclipsed scoring three goals in a game twice. In that same span they have only allowed less than three goals against five times. It would make sense they do not want to get into a run and gun shoot out with the Jets which is exactly what the Jets will likely try to do. The fact is the Red Wings are a depleted team now compared to a Jets team that added- anything can happen but this is a game the Jets need to win for many reasons.
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The aftermath of the trade deadline has come and as usual the insiders have let slip some other information that was not prevalent in the frenzy that happened on Monday. Elliot Friedman had two interesting takes on the Jets and the Stastny move.
14. One scout on Stastny and Winnipeg: "That's a good fit. He needs speed around him... and they've got plenty of it."
15. I think the Blues tried to turn that Jets pick into a centre, but couldn't get there.
The first point is obvious and worth watching as how he is utilized- again 'thanks captain obvious'. The second point leaves a little to interpretation because were the Blues trying to turn the Jets offer of a first round pick into a centre from the Jets or were they trying to flip it for a centre?
I think the latter is the case as but it might have required sweetening the pot as it's likely that Jets pick was the 22nd or lower. However if the Blues were resetting with the move of Stastny were they asking for a Jets centre prospect and probably that wold be Roslovic or would it have been Petan? Again I don't think this is what Friedman was hinting at but it could have been an entirely different deal had the Jets shipped out Petan instead of a first. I wonder if that was even discussed.
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The prospective Seattle NHL ownership group did a season ticket drive and exceeded anyone's wildest expectations. The hopeful amount of 10,000 deposits was reached and quickly but in total there were 25,000 deposits made for tickets. Honestly I didn't think Seattle had it in them.
I've been on the opposite side of expansion to Seattle for some time, I don't think it's the right place but given the absence of an NBA team (at least for the time being) this could be something that works if the tickets are priced right. Let's clarify that, the tickets have to be priced right for revenue not for sales. The NHL is still a gate driven league and if the tickets are cheaper than west coast seafood chowder the franchise will eventually be a drain on the overall league revenue because they can't cover their costs. Let's face it, the ticket deposit drive did a lot to mitigate any fears but there's still work to be done, that being said it looks like I was wrong again. In this case I'm happy to be wrong.
Enjoy the game.
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • 
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